21st Century Pride and Prejudice
by Moon Austen
Summary: School had always been so boring for wild and infamous Mary-Lynette. That was until two rich and seemingly snobby students transferred. Despite her intentions, Mary-Lynette strangely finds herself drawn to the mysterious and annoyingly proud Ash Redfern.


Authors Note: Yes, this is a modern day version of Pride and Prejudice. Actually, it's a loosely based version that follows the main storyline of the book. This chapter is just a short and basic introduction to the rest of the story. I hope you enjoy reading and reviews are always welcome.

**Disclaimer: I own this fan fiction, but I do not own Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice or L.J. Smith's Night World Series.**

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><p><span>Prologue<span>

You would think that the first day of a fresh new year as a junior might spark some interest in the likes of sixteen year old me. I am sorry to tell you that you would be wrong.

My name is Mary-Lynette and I have a very interesting reputation. Up until the eighth grade I was always that quiet girl who sat alone in the corner of her class, drawing stars and constellations in her notebook. I never spoke to anybody.

Honestly though, there wasn't anybody interesting enough to speak to. The town I live in is a little quiet. It is small and practically in the middle of nowhere. Everybody was boring and weird. Nobody in our town had any sense of ambition–they just planned to follow in their parents footsteps like mindless zombies.

As a result of this lack of independence, everyone in our town was judged by how successful their parents were. My parents only own a small bookstore called Carter's just around the corner from school. You can imagine how popular that made me.

But back to my point, when I entered high school I was ready to be the same quiet girl that nobody noticed. That plan was almost set in motion, but everything crashed and burned when I accidentally ended up massacring the statue of our school founder on the first day of freshman year. Don't ask me how I did it, I can't explain. It just happened.

Everybody knew my name the next day and it wasn't exactly in a bad way. They thought I was this exciting and wild girl to add a little more life into our dull environment. Also, I seemed to be the polar opposite of my older sister Jane.

At the time, Jane was a sophomore and she was pretty much the most popular girl in school. Not because she was some bitchy and control-freak cheerleader, but because she was the most beautiful and sweet girl in the whole school. The moment anyone caught a glimpse of her wavy honey blonde hair and capturing blue eyes, they fell under her innocent spell.

Now she's a senior and she still holds that strong reputation. Me? I'm nothing like Jane. Not only am I absolutely not sweet, I have straight brown hair with a single red streak–which is my sad attempt to seem like a rebel–and I am known to be incredibly random and frequently out of place. The only thing I have in common with my sister would be our blue eyes.

Despite what many people would expect, my sister and I are actually incredibly close. We never fight and we tell each other everything. At least everything that we feel we can let out of ourselves at all.

We usually talked most during the car ride together to school. Today, we said goodbye before entering the main school building because she needed to go to the student council block. Being the president, she had an obligation.

As I walked through the entrance of the school by myself, little Kitty stopped me.

"Hi Mary-Lynette! I missed you," she said and she gave me a hug.

Kitty was a sophomore this year and she was slightly infatuated with me in a sisterly kind of way ever since I saved her from a bully last year. She and her two best friends, Lydia and Mary, usually stuck together giggling and gossiping.

"Hey Kitty. How was your break?" I asked after we pulled away.

We started walking side by side aimlessly down the bleakly lighted halls. I soaked up my cliché school environment, reminding myself of every detail after the long summer break. The fluorescent lights, linoleum floor and grey lockers joined by noisy and busy students were all too typical.

"It was really exciting. I learnt how to surf! Anyway, did you hear that we have three new students transferring this year?"

I didn't know. Quite frankly I didn't care. But I entertained Kitty anyway.

"Really? Aren't there usually more than just three transfers every year?"

Kitty looked at me and laughed.

"Well of course silly! It's just that these students are much more important. They come from these super rich families that own like these huge chain store corporations and they're from the city!" she said.

Great, a bunch of stuck up rich kids to liven up the school with their fancy sports cars and designer brand watches. How exciting.

"That's great for you. Maybe you'll snag one of them for yourself if any of them are boys," I said. It was meant to be a joke, but Kitty took it seriously.

"Two of them are! And that one other girl is the sister of one of the boys'. Lydia bets that they're really good-looking."

Of course they would be good-looking.

"If they're as rich as you say they are, they'd be good-looking if they had warts and wore mom jeans," I said.

Kitty gave a cute laugh at that and then continued with her little rant.

"Sadly though, I hear they're only going to be here next week."

_Fashionably late?_ I thought.

"Why? And where do you get all this information?" I asked.

Kitty gave me a cheeky smile.

"I can't reveal my sources. But I don't know why they're going to be late. It's so sad! They'll miss the homecoming dance on Friday," she complained.

Our school always had a homecoming dance at the first Friday of every new school year and this dance was big. It wasn't reserved for a single grade, but it was for the whole school. It was also really hectic because everything had to be organized in a week–the homecoming committee, the king and queen nominations as well as everything else.

That was when the first bell of the day rang.

"I have to go Kitty, it was nice talking to you," I said. She said goodbye and gave me another hug. She then scurried to her homeroom while I rushed to mine.

I was a little disappointed. It would have been interesting if they could join us at the dance.

I guess somebody was listening to my thoughts because everybody received a small surprise on Friday.

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><p>Author's Note: Thanks for reading this prologue. If you can, leave a review of whether this story has any potential to be lifted off the ground and enjoyed by you fellow readers. Thanks.<p> 


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